Wireless communication devices, including cell phones, mobile phones and other smart communication devices, operate by inducing movement of various forms of electromagnetic waves that carry packeted information including voice and data. These devices also produce radiation. Medical science accumulated over the past 15 years confirms health risks from the certain combinations of energy waves producing electromagnetic radiation from such device use. For example, brain cancer risk increases, especially after ten years of cell phone use. There is a pronounced five-fold increase in brain cancer when use begins in the teenage years and such use increases risk of benign tumors of the brain, tumors of the acoustic nerve, and tumors of the eyes.
There are also documented health risks from non-cancer conditions. For example, cell phone use has been reported to increase risk of impairment such as: anxiety disorders, sleep disorders, memory disorders, electro-hypersensitivity, learning disorders, Autism, ADD, ADHD, temper disorders and other behavioral disorders.
As used in this application, a cell phone is any device that can make and receive telephone calls, carrying voice or data, over any system that includes a wireless radio link. As is well known, such devices are useful while moving from place to place. Cell phones as used herein also include mobile devices that receive and transmit video and text. A battery that may be rechargeable provides power for the cell phone functions. The cell phone includes an input mechanism (keypads, touchscreen, etc.) that operates the cell phone functions.
There is also medical evidence that people with other health conditions not necessarily caused by cell phone exposures are made worse by the exposures and the efficacy of medicines used to treat medical conditions are sometimes rendered less effective when there is cell phone exposure.
Cell phone use while driving has been linked to dramatic increase in automobile accidents and fatalities. Twenty-seven states in the U.S. have mandated the use of headsets on cell phones to protect against accident risk.
During the past five years, both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate have held hearings on cell phone health and safety dangers.
There are at present personal injury and product liability cases moving through the Courts in the United States, Europe and Israel, brought by plaintiffs who suffer from brain tumors whose cause they ascribe to their cell phone use.
In several states in the U.S., legislation has been introduced or otherwise considered that would affix health risk warning labels on cell phones with admonitions to use headsets as one risk mitigation step.
The equivalent of the Senate in France is considering legislation that would restrict promotion and sale of cell phones and other wireless devices to children and would require headsets to be included in each phone sold.
The scientific literature addressing the underlying health risks ascribed to cell phone and wireless device use numbers more than 12,000 peer-reviewed papers and reports. Included are three books by G. Carlo. One of those, “Cell Phones: Invisible Hazards in the Wireless Age”, a best-selling book published in 2001 and now printed in six languages, was the first to define a summary of the nature of cell phone radiation hazards for the non-scientific public. Among the recommendations made was the use of headsets.
In the United States and other countries around the world, there are emission standards that are intended to provide a margin of safety for cell phone users that are based on the heat-inducing intensity of the electromagnetic fields produced by cell phones. These standards are expressed in Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) units which represents the amount of radiation passing through a gram of tissue per unit of time. The present standard SAR is 1.6 watts per kilogram.
The nature of cell phone radiation and the emerging scientific literature makes clear that there are several mechanisms of harm active with respect to cell phone dangers. There is universal acceptance in the scientific literature that there are two distinct radiation plumes emitted by cell phones that carry different types of danger, as well as effects generated by electromagnetic radiation produced by the internal circuitry of the phones. The most serious is the so-called ‘near-field plume’, which is the result of the power surge necessary to carry cell phone signals to transmission base stations. There is also an ambient or ‘far-field’ plume that carries with it unique health risk considerations. The concern about radiation produced by the circuitry is direct-contact exposure that produces allergic reactions in susceptible and sensitive users.
There is near universal acceptance in the scientific literature that the dual waveform—temporally-coherent carrier wave and spatially-coherent modulated wave—that is necessary for communication of information through wireless signals, is responsible for the biological responses elicited by both plumes.
The special significance of the near-field plume is that it emanates in all directions from the cell phone antenna about six to ten inches, depending upon the type of phone, geographic location of the phone during a call, position of the phone during the call, and the characteristics of the user (for example, there is deeper penetration into the heads of children because of the different biological make-up of their growing brain tissues.).
The penetration of this biologically active near-field plume into the brain is uniquely dangerous to brain tissue because brain tissue is highly vulnerable to environmental stressors. Brain cells, unlike all other cells in the human body, have very limited capacity for adaptation and self-protection. Thus, the human skull has evolved as a protection against trauma and the blood-brain barrier has evolved as a protection against dangerous circulating chemical exposures. Scientific data show that dangers from cell phones include both direct adverse impact on brain cells and tissue and diminution in the effectiveness of protective mechanisms including impact on the integrity of both the skull and the blood-brain barrier.
The penetrating Information Carrying Radio Waves (ICRW) from wireless communication devices (a dual wave form with a high-frequency carrier signal and a low-frequency secondary wave caused by modulation techniques) represents an evolutionarily new environmental exposure phenomenon so humans have not yet evolved a natural protective system.
The need, therefore, is to protect sensitive brain tissue from the near-field plume of ICRW by moving the plume away from the brain tissue. This is called primary prevention in medical and public health jargon—eliminating the dangerous exposure. The present new headset is thus a means of primary prevention in this regard.
Since the middle 1990s, there have been various varieties of headsets available for wireless devices. However, consumer research indicates that the current wired headsets on the market are considered to be cumbersome—especially the wire which is inconvenient, non-stylist, flimsy and are not therefore used. If they are not used, they offer no public health and safety protection benefit.
The present invention addresses these practical concerns and seeks to present a new headset platform that is convenient, stylish, strong, durable, of high sound-quality, and transportable from one device type to another. The present invention is designed specifically to protect against near-field plume health and safety dangers, migration of circuitry-induced radiation that harms sensitive and susceptible users, and the effects of excursions of ambient electromagnetic radiation drawn into the bio-field of the cell phone user.
There are two general types of headsets on the market presently: wired headsets and wireless or BlueTooth headsets. In the preferred embodiment, the present disclosure is an improvement on wired headsets or earphones. However, both types have their problems which may be improved by this disclosure.
There are a number of manufacturers, with the largest market shares owned by Jabra and Plantronics. These companies carry both wired and wireless versions that are offered as ‘conveniences’ rather than ‘safety features’. It is noteworthy that some companies in the wireless industry itself openly recognize cell phone dangers in their product literature. Some others indirectly infer the presence of cell phone dangers in their user manuals. In either case, they do recommend headsets as a ‘convenience’ while still recommending keeping the phone a safe distance from the head.
Thus, the invention distinguishes itself in use from the products of these manufacturers in that the platform design is specifically addressing the health and safety concerns while also improving on the convenience and usability aspects.
BlueTooth headsets do not address the safety issue because they are in themselves wireless devices that change the near-field plume penetration profile but do not eliminate exposure to the near-field plume as does the present disclosure. In addition, the BlueTooth headsets introduce an additional type of ICRW exposure by virtue of their operating wireless signal which connects to the cell phone itself. These devices also draw ambient electromagnetic radiation into the users bio-field. So in effect, they increase the health risks to some, as yet unknown, degree.